Concluding insurance contracts in electronic form: how ODE services help the insurers

In recent years, digitalization in Ukraine has become a trend. Technology has an impact on all business sectors. Insurance is no exception. On the one hand, the government sets the trend for the use of digital tools. On the other hand, since the pandemic, the demand for remote conclusion of insurance contracts in electronic form has increased significantly. So insurance agents are using all possible tools that help them in their remote work.

What role online document exchange services (ODE) play in this process — let’s consider the article.

Digitalization of insurance — the way to European standards

The National Bank of Ukraine, which regulates the activities of insurance agents, aims to make the insurance market closer to European standards. The new Law of Ukraine “On Insurance”, the development of which the NBU announced on its official website, will be a significant step towards this.

To adjust the market to the new requirements, the National Bank plans to introduce a number of regulations. Specifically, in the fall we expect draft regulations on the peculiarities of concluding insurance contracts with consumers and draft regulations on the use of electronic signature and electronic seal. They will stipulate that an electronic insurance contract (or its individual part, if the contract is concluded by adhesion) must contain an electronic signature of the consumer (including an electronic signature with a one-time identifier) and a qualified electronic signature (QES) of the person authorized by the insurer or insurance intermediary to conclude insurance contracts.

For instance, the QES of an insurance agent or intermediary will have to contain a qualified electronic time stamp. It will record the time from which the insurance contract enters into force, unless another date is specified in the text of the contract.

At the moment, the current legislation allows insurers to sign insurance contracts with other types of electronic signatures, such as one-time identifiers. However, insurance agents are already actively using QES in their work with clients. It provides additional opportunities for the remote conclusion of insurance contracts with clients.

A QES of an insurance company employee can be used both for exchanging documents with clients and for internal document workflow. The latter is especially convenient in cases where the company has an extensive structure and its offices are located in different cities.

For example, if in order to prepare a claim report for payment in paper form it had to be printed, signed and stamped, this procedure could take up to 20 minutes. When using ODE services and QES, the time for execution and signing is reduced to 1 minute.

The experience of Vchasno’s clients testifies to the advantages of using ODE and QES in the insurance industry.

The way Vchasno helps to provide insurance services

The insurance company Arsenal Insurance IC has switched to electronic document workflow with the beginning of the lockdown. The company not only used the Vchasno.KEP electronic signature to conclude insurance contracts, but also systematically used the Vchasno.ODE service for exchange of basic documents, remote conclusion of contracts, etc.

By switching to ODE, Arsenal Insurance IC was able to provide additional services to its clients, namely:

• remote signing of insurance contracts;
• online payment;
• remote settlement. Clients can send photos of car damage in the chat room, receive documents by e-mail and go to the service station. Afterwards, the insurance agent communicates online with the service station.

In 2020, Arsenal Insurance IC launched Easy Peasy Insuretech startup. It was the first project of an insurance company in Ukraine in a smartphone. The idea is that the client can insure a car on a “pay-as-you-go” principle, i.e. payment per kilometer. You don’t have to go to the office and pay for the whole year to get CASCO. It is possible to buy insurance comprising 500 casco kilometers on the insurer’s website and top it up via a mobile application.

Thus, ODE services help insurers to organize remote work on documents. The demand for remote insurance services is growing, and today it is already obvious that most customers will not want to return to the offline format. With the help of ODE services, it is much faster and more convenient to conclude insurance contracts with just a smartphone at hand.

The material is co-authored by:

Roman Kralich — Sales Manager, Vchasno
Oleksandr Melnyk — Head of Legal Department, Zakúpivli, Vchasno